Image intensifiers are used in low light (e.g., night vision) applications to amplify ambient light into a more visible image.
When viewing scenes through an image intensifier, localized areas of high light intensity lead to excessive numbers of electrons in those areas, which negatively impacts image fidelity. Thus, localized areas of high light intensity need to be selectively gained down to optimize scene reproduction. This may be referred to herein as “braking.”
In micro-channel plate (MPC) based intensifiers, braking is provided by the strip current of the plate. Currently, for electron bombarded gain there is no “braking” mechanism to locally limit the number of electron-hole pairs (EHPs) created by a bright spot in an otherwise dark background. Techniques to control this issue in conventional proximity-focused intensifiers are not applicable to semiconductor based electron multipliers.